Gymnasts continue to roll; Lady Knights improve to 7-0 with win over Farmington

February 7, 2014

By John Goralski
Sports Writer
It wasn’t spectacular. It wasn’t their highest score of the season, but on Saturday, Feb. 1, the Knights did what they had to do to win.
Nagging injuries continued to plague the Lady Knight gymnasts. Many were tired after a night of club gymnastics just a few hours earlier, but Southington improved to 7-0 with a 136.45-131.0 win over Farmington, and Coach Kaitlyn O’Donnell was pleased with her team’s efforts.
“The girls were tired coming into it, so we knew we’d have some trouble,” said the coach. “I told them to just come in and try to get through it.”
A bad night for Southington would still be a great night for most teams. Lexi Rothstein pulled out the stops on her floor routine (9.2) to lead the Knights in the all-around competition with 34.5 points across four events.
Marilyn Sporbert shrugged off injury to compete in two events, and kicked off the meet with a meet-high 9.1 on vault. Kayla Nati (8.7) powered the Knights on bars. Vicky Castillo paced the Knights on beam (9.0), and Southington swept all four events against the No. 8 ranked Farmington team.
“We had some real positive points in the meet. It wasn’t a horrible meet, but it wasn’t one of our best,” said O’Donnell. “With our injuries, we’re really just looking to finish up the regular season. We want to rest our injuries and get ready for the postseason.”
The score was more than two points short of their season average (138.967), but it was good enough to hold on to second place in the CIAC rankings behind Woodstock Academy (144.137).
Now, the Knights will take a week to regroup before testing themselves against a number of top teams at the Valentine Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 8 at Farmington Valley Gymnastics in Plainville.
“The season is starting to catch up with us, so it’s good to have a little bit of time off this week,” O’Donnell said. “The Valentine Invitational will be a good test for us.”
The competition is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
To comment on this story or to contact sports writer John Goralski, email him at jgoralski@ southingtonobserver.com.

By John GoralskiKayla Nati performs her floor routine during a win over Farmington on Satur-day, Feb. 1.